National census beginning in Tajikistan.

DUSHANBE, September 21 (Itar-Tass) - An important political campaign
-- a national census -- is starting out in Tajikistan.
Zebo Ismailova, the director of the National Statistics Agency
reporting to the Office of the President, said Monday an amount of $ 1.6
million has been allocated from the national budget to implement this
massive social project.
"A total of 30,000 counting officials are engaged in this action," she
said. "They've taken special courses of training on how to take census,
and we also have volunteers from among students."
The previous census was taken in Tajikistan in 2000 when the country's
population totaled 6,127,000 people. Experts say today, however the then
data might be somewhat incorrect due to the post-conflict situation with
only three years that had elapsed since the end of the civil war and
especially if one considers a mass of displaced persons and people
non-Tajik nationality.
Officials at the statistics agency found it difficult to explain how
they will take account of the Tajikistani citizens -- migrant workers in
the first place -- who are absent from the country temporarily. While the
government data suggests their number does not exceed 450,000, the
assessments provided by independent experts put the number of such people
at over a million.
Experts also say a less polyethnic composition of the population may
be registered by this census. Already in 2000, people representing
non-titular nationalities made up not more than 1% to 1.5% of the
population, with the exception of the ethnic Uzbek community that makes
compact living in Tajikistan's north.
The census will continue through to September 30.